William Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth is many things: ruthless, ambitious, manipulative, flawed. But there’s one thing she isn’t: a man. Or so I thought. For almost a decade, I have been working as a private tutor helping students studying English and history. I love my job: there’s few things better in life than reading great literature and discussing it with keen youngsters. Often, tutoring is about filling in gaps in their knowledge; sometimes it’s about correcting misinterpretations. Most recently this meant I had to unpick the suggestion that Lady Macbeth was, in fact, a bloke.

The problem appears to have come from the line in Macbeth: ‘Unsex me here’

Predictably, the problem appears to have come from the famous line in Macbeth: ‘Unsex me here’. Much quoted by GCSE students, the line expresses Lady Macbeth’s wish to rid herself of feminine weakness so that she can help Macbeth carry out regicide. The whole soliloquy is often used by teachers and exam boards to analyse ideas about the stereotypes applied to men and women in Shakespeare’s time. Ruthless, bloody aggression was for men; nurturing gentleness for women. Lady Macbeth’s attempt to embrace more masculine qualities ultimately destroys her as she is overwhelmed with guilt at all the bloodshed she........

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